”Being a Ricky Martin, and being what Ricky Martin represented back then, and what I was feeling was not compatible at all. You know, I was the sexy one, and I needed to dance and I needed to make girls crazy. And I couldn’t say that I was gay. It was a lot of struggle. And if you add to that, let’s call it culture, religion, society, what people say — you know, what I was feeling what I have in my mind was evil.

”And I’m very lucky today to say that I’m gay, and I love it. And I’m very happy, and that’s it! … A lot of people say, ‘Yeah, what’s new? We knew that.’ But it was about what I was feeling and my own fears, and my struggles. And I know that there’s a lot of people out there, men and women, that are struggling with that…. Everybody has to go through their own spiritual journey…. I just tell people to take care of themselves and focus on dignity and self esteem and look at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I love you.'”

Latin and pop music singer Ricky Martin talking with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, Tuesday, May 3. He said that the media response has been amazing since his coming out, and that his concerts are currently selling out. He noted that he had to take time to step out of the limelight, partly because he’d been performing since he was 12 years old.

Martin was in DC in October of 2010 to give a speech at the Human Rights Campaign Dinner:

JD Uy has been a Metro Weekly webmaster, distribution manager, blogger and videographer since 2002.